Poland

The Republic of Poland, a country in Central Europe, lies between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) to the north. Its location and accessible terrain has meant that the land has and a satellite state of the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1989. After it had become free from the Soviet domination, the first free elections after the World War II were held in 1990.

Poland geography

The Polish landscape consists almost entirely of the lowlands of the North European Plain, at an average height of 173 metres, though the Sudetes (including the Karkonosze) and the Carpathian Mountains (including the Tatra mountains, where one also finds Poland's highest point, Rysy, at 2,499 m.) form the southern border. Several large rivers cross the plains, for instance the Vistula (Wisła), Oder (Odra), Warta the (Western) Bug. Poland also contains over 9,300 lakes, predominantly in the north of the country. Masuria (Mazury) forms the largest and most-visited lake district in Poland. Remains of the ancient forests survive. Poland enjoys a temperate climate, with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters with frequent precipitation and mild summers with frequent showers and thundershowers.